


Food For Thought

by Cinder



Category: Hannibal (TV), Veep
Genre: Also known as the fic where Dan Egan, Even if he's in a universe, F/M, No matter what universe he ends up in, and she's kidnapped by a cannibal named Hannibal, develops feelings for Amy, where her name is Miriam Lass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-08
Updated: 2014-04-08
Packaged: 2018-01-18 14:33:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1432033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cinder/pseuds/Cinder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Out there, somewhere, there is a politician who can spin that his missing girlfriend has now been found in a well with half an arm gone. </p><p>Dan Egan is not that man.</p><p>*</p><p>Before she was Miriam Lass, Chesapeake Ripper survivor, she was Miriam Lass, FBI trainee. And even before that, she was Miriam "Ame" Lass, girlfriend of Dan Egan and Secret Service agent for the Veep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Food For Thought

Out there, somewhere, there is a politician who can spin that his missing girlfriend has now been found in a well with half an arm gone. 

Dan Egan is not that man.

Dan Egan always thought he’d be that type of man, the man who could spin any political situation. But currently, he’s kind of freaking out. 

Currently, Dan Egan is trying to hold down a panic attack while the office goes nuts around him. 

“No, I don’t know if she has her elbow left.” Sue snaps into the phone, before slamming it down. 

“No he was not the one who put her down in the well. He doesn’t even own a well! They were friends! And if they stopped being friends, wouldn’t he just kill her instead of put her down a well?” Mike shouts into his cellphone, making everything a thousand times worse. “No Leon, don’t print that.” But it’s too late, because a second later Mike hangs his head in defeat. “Christ, who put this out there?” 

“Freddie Lounds.” Sue is typing out emails as fast as her hands will send them. “Dan, do you want to do something, anything, to help us?”

Dan would, except he’s on hold with Memorial Hospital, again, after the twelfth fucking time. 

“You know they’re not going to let you see her right away.” Sue says. “So put the cell phone down and help me tell about fifty TV stations to fuck themselves with their own dicks.”

“Or elbows.” And, of course, this is the perfect time for Jonah to make his entrance. Jesus Christ, of course it is. 

“So Dan, you still gonna tap that? I mean, she does not look that great.” Jonah’s looking on his iPad, his fat face just in front it.

Mike gets in between Jonah and Dan, preventing Dan from slamming the iPad straight into his face. “You’ve got pictures?”

“Yeah, Freddie Lounds posted them to her blog.” Jonah hands over the iPad to Mike.

“Oh sweet Jesus.” Mike looks down at the pictures, and then looks at Dan. Dan lunges for it, but Mike holds it back. 

Over in the corner, Sue has also pulled up Freddie’s site. Dan tries to lunge for that, but she turns the screen away from him. “You know, maybe you should just wait for the hospital to let you see her...” It’s a testimony to how bad it is that Sue looks disturbed.

Dan tries to grab the iPad again, but Mike, in all his wisdom, smashes it to the floor. It bounces back, screen still intact. 

“Stupid piece of unbroken shit!” Mike tries to stomp on it, but Dan grabs it out from under his foot and looks at the screen. 

Miriam’s face looks back at him, encrusted with dirt. Her hair is dark brown instead of gold, and her eyes are empty. She’s wearing what looks like a child’s nightgown. In clear definition is a stump where her right arm used to be. 

Dan puts down the iPad and vomits. Gary runs in with bleach, screaming about how it’s already been a stressful day for Selina, and now this?

Like it’s Selina’s girlfriend who went missing for two years and then suddenly turned up in a well with a half an arm missing.

In the corner, Jonah picks up the iPad again. “You know, she doesn’t look too bad as brunette. I mean, if you can get around the stump thing.” 

*

Her mother’s clutched her hand and sobbed, her father punched a hole in the wall when he looked at her, and her sister has flat out refused to get near her, citing “the stump will scare the baby”.

They tell her it’s been two years (only that?) but it’s comforting in a weird way to see her family hasn’t changed much. 

Miriam thinks she should be hurt, but the truth is that she can barely summon the energy to care. She has the awful feeling that this is all a ruse, a way to make her feel safe. And then the dark man will come back, and she’ll be back in that basement. Or the well. Or someplace even worse. 

The only thing keeping her sane is Jack, who hasn’t left her side through the entire ordeal. Who was the one who calmed her mother down, and pushed a chair in front of her father’s mess and who ordered her sister to leave the room. She told him everything - that she couldn’t see the dark man’s face, only a shadow, only heard his voice. For days and months and years, his was the only voice she heard.

Jack stares down at her with sad eyes, and Miriam feels her stomach curl. She feels safer around him than with anyone else, but she can barely remember her time with him. Sometimes a memory will come out of nowhere, just the faintest bit. Standing in front of an autopsy table with him, talking to him in his office... But when she reaches for the memory, it disappears. 

Her mother’s arguing with a nurse. Through the haze of her drugs and thoughts, Miriam hears bits of the conversation. The nurse is telling her angry mother that nobody but her family and Jack is allowed to see her. 

“He...Vice President...important...waiting...” It’s all Miriam can hear before she gives up. 

She drops down into sleep, exhausted.

*

The first time Dan sees Miriam Lass, it’s in the Veep’s office while he’s trying to convince her to fire her current Chief of Staff. And if she happens to make him the new Chief, he’s not arguing. He’s winning her over, but out of the corner of his eye he can see a Secret Service agent glaring at him. He tries to ignore her, but she’s got such a look of absolute disdain on her face that it’s actually impressive. 

When Selina leaves the room to break the news to the poor bastard, the agent continues to glare.

“What?” Dan says, leaning against Selina’s desk. 

“You are an absolute shit.” She says. 

It’s the first words she ever says to him. Then, three years later, it’s the last words she ever says to him. She tells him over the phone, somehow both sincere and teasing, that he is an absolute shit. Then they hang up.

Two days later, he gets a call from Miriam’s mother. She sobs through the line that the FBI have informed her that Miriam has gone missing. 

*

Miriam is in Selina’s office, pretending to be vigilant but really wondering if a job with the FBI wouldn't be as damn boring as this, when she hears the yell. 

“Oh shit, it’s Furlong.” Selina sighs. She continues to spin away in her chair. 

Miriam continues to hear screaming, and decides it’s probably a good idea to go check it out. Furlong doesn’t seem to be much of a threat, but she should probably do something anyway.

When she opens the door, she sees Furlong with his finger in Dan’s face, and Dan actually looking panicked for once. It’s slightly enjoyable. Still, Miriam guesses it’s her job to rescue Dan from fuckers like Furlong. 

Furlong yells something about Dan being a nice target, and Miriam decides that’s as good an excuse as any to kick his ass out of the office.

“You need to leave.” 

Furlong looks her up and down, sneering. “I’m sorry, honey, I know you feel real grown up with your Secret Service badge but I’m -”

Miriam places her hand on the gun tucked under her jacket, and steps forward. 

“Now.” 

Furlong stares at her for a second before storming out, screaming at the top of his lungs about how they’ll all pay. 

Miriam looks at Dan. He looks a little impressed, but mostly sick. “So, are you going to jail?” She asks.

“Maybe. Let’s just prey Furlong isn’t on the Congressional Committee.” Dan sits in a chair; she can see his mind coming up with schemes and plans. 

“Fingers crossed we lose the House.” Miriam goes back into Selina’s office, walking past Sue who is offended that she didn’t get to toss Furlong out. 

She isn’t on anyone’s side, but she kinds of hopes they do lose the House.

*

He finds Miriam sitting in a corner of the hotel, exhaustion written over her face. They’ve spent five straight months on the campaign trail, and she’s been with them for every second. She’s pretty effective, actually. She scares the crap out of Furlong, and Chung won’t even approach them if he sees her. Dan’s not sure how a woman who only reaches 5’2 is so intimating, but he’s not going to question it if it works.

“Someone taking over for you?” He asks, sitting down next to her. He’s just had to remove Mike from a room full of reporters, mainly because he was giving them tons of ammunition they could use against Selina.

“Just for tonight.” Miriam says. She looks at Dan. “Wanna get shitfaced?

“Absolutely.”

Dan wakes up in his hotel room the next day, naked and with a raging headache. Miriam’s already gone.

Dan decides he could really like this girl.

*

What exactly do you get for your missing until as of a week ago, one armed, possible - if she isn’t too traumatized - girlfriend?

Mike suggests flowers. 

Gary tells him to buy a cheese basket from Dana.

Selina snaps that she’s already gotten him a Vice Presidential order to see Miriam, do you know how many favors she had to call, so would you please get the fuck out of her office and ask someone else for gift ideas?

In the end, Dan shows up outside her hospital room with a small box, flipping it over nervously in his hands as her mother opens the door.

“She’s not exactly...in the best state of mind.” Her mother says, but Dan looks past her. 

Miriam’s lying in the hospital bed. Her hair is golden again and her eyes are full of pain but at least they aren’t empty, and her mouth is turned down in a frown.

“You’re not family.” She says, confused. “And you’re not with the FBI.” 

Her mother flutters next to him, telling him the drugs have confused her, and her, well, her trauma, dear, that’s confused her too, you have to understand...

But Dan doesn’t need to know that, he can see it all. He can see her slowly putting the puzzle pieces together in her mind. 

*

The stranger in front of Miriam sits on her bed and passes her a small box. It’s already been opened (by the FBI, probably). She opens it with one hand, ignoring how he occasionally glances at her stump.

Inside is a small Blackberry phone. 

Miriam hasn’t been around a phone since... A flash in her mind. A phone, a dark place, the dark man standing in front of her. 

“I was so wrong...” 

She doesn’t realize she’s said it out loud until the man says “Ame?” 

And that name sets her off in an entirely different direction.

*

“We’re going to get caught, you know.” Miriam stretches out on her bed, her back to the man lying next to her.

He groans. “You need to stop bringing that up every single time we meet.”

“Well maybe if you didn’t keep whispering to meet you in the coat room...”

“You know, you don’t have to cum.”

“Oh God, are you proud of that pun?” Miriam rolls over, facing him. Her hair falls in front of her face, and she pushes it out of the way, but not before noticing that Dan’s hand twitched, as though he was going to. “But seriously, we need to be more careful. You can’t keep leaving me dirty messages around Selina’s office. I’m pretty sure Jonah found one.” 

“So you want me to text you? On your Secret Service issued cell phone?”

“I have another cell phone.”

“Not at work.”

He has a point there. “Fine. But you can’t keep addressing me in the notes.”

Dan snorts. “Fine. I’ll just call you Miri.” 

“Call me Miri and I’ll shoot your dick off.” 

“Fine, Ame.” 

Huh. Miriam thinks to herself. It’s okay nickname, and it’s not too unique of a name to attract attention to her. “That works.”

“Good, pumpkin.” 

“Call me that, and I’ll shoot your dick off.”

*

 

“They want me to see a therapist.” Miriam tells him, snagging her jello from his hands. It’s lime, the only flavor that either of them can stand from the shitty hospital food. Dan smuggles her sandwiches from her favorite (or at least as of two years ago) deli when he can. Normally Jack Crawford would have caught on, but he’s been absent lately, dealing with some business of getting a prisoner released from jail. 

“Is that bad?” Dan tries to snag it again, but Miriam holds it out of his reach. She’s surprisingly lithe with just one hand, but Dan doesn’t like to think about it. It means she’s had plenty of time to get used to it. 

“I don’t know.” Miriam pokes the jello with a fork. “I’m just not looking forward to...talking. You know, about it.” She pokes the jello again, then puts it aside. “I’m starving and this looks like green shit. Did you bring me a sandwich?”

Dan pulls it out. Miriam grabs it, taking a huge bite and moaning when her teeth bite into the meat.

*

Miriam’s gotten used to Dan showing up at her hospital room. Jack glares at him, afraid he’ll bring up memories Miriam’s not ready for. But Alana tells him that it’s okay, if she’s reacting well to him, then it’s good for her.

When she asks, he tells her bits and pieces from her past, and catches her up on the present. Selina once again, failed to be President and is still the Veep. Mike is still screwing up. Sue still hates everybody. Miriam nods and tries to remember, but when she thinks about her old job, Dan’s face is the only one that sticks in her mind.

He sits on her hospital bed, making sarcastic remarks and pissing her off. But it feels good, a fire coming back into her bones and muscles. She likes fighting, like arguing with someone. Everyone else just glances at her arm and then looks away. 

She also likes the feel of her Blackberry in her hand, how good it feels against her skin. She masters texting with one hand in a two days. Dan says she loved her old Blackberry, would never stop carrying it around. He doesn’t ask where her old one is, and Miriam doesn’t say, but she knows it’s connected to that dark call in her mind. She’s afraid of going back there, afraid of awaking whatever spirit that’s invaded her thoughts. Instead she goes back into the happier memories, where the cell phone led to late nights with this man in front of her.

She’s beginning to remember him in bits and pieces, and right now that’s enough for her. 

*

Miriam leans against the wall, watching Selina spin for the thousandth time this year. She cannot wait to get back on the campaign trail, Selina’s been so cooped up once she got back to D.C. that she’s been snapping at everyone but Dan, who somehow achieved the massive miracle of getting Jonah fired. 

Speak of the devil...

“You piece of shit!” And then there’s a thud.

Miriam is out the door and into the bullpen before anyone else can blink. Jonah is standing in front of Dan, who is still managing to look extremely smug with a black eye and a bruised face. He’s on the floor, with Jonah looming over him. As he gets to his feet, Jonah raises his fist again. Miriam flies at him, tackling him so hard they go crashing into a desk. As the rest of the Secret Service swarm him (thanks for the help, guys), dragging him out of the office, Miriam goes to Dan. 

“Let me see.” She cups his face in her hands.

“I’m totally fine.” Dan says, attempting to look macho. It’s failed by the fact that blood is flowing from his lip. 

“Stop act liking a piece of shit and let me help you.” She gently presses her hand to his bruised face, testing for severity. 

“Oh yeah! And let’s not forget that these two are fucking!” Jonah yells, practically being carried out of the office now. “I’ll make your life hell, man! You!” He points at Dan and then he turns to Miriam. “And you!”

Miriam knows it’s over. They might have been able to persuade everyone that Jonah was just lying, except that everyone just saw their little exchange on the floor. 

Selina calls them into her office a few minutes later.

“I need you two. I like you two. Well, I like you.” She gestured to Miriam. “You’re a robot Dan, but you’re useful.”

“Gee, thanks.” Dan deadpans.

“So here’s what we’re going to do. You two are going to break up. No more secret fucking, no more secret meetings, no...whatever the fucking secret things you two were doing.” Selina waves her hands, disgusted by the whole idea. “And we’ll all say that Jonah was batshit crazy from being fired. Okay?”

No, not okay.

Two days later Jonah’s got his job again, courtesy of Dan. He immediately recants his story about Miriam and Dan, claiming being fired made him spew lies. Everyone who isn’t an idiot doesn’t buy it. 

Which is basically just Sue and Selina, so they’re safe from the rest of the office. But Selina says that she might be President in the next few years, and she cannot have them caught in a huge scandal, so they really need to stop fucking, okay?

Miriam starts looking at jobs with the FBI.

*

“Alana recommended a therapist.” Miriam tells him. He’s lying next to her in bed, one arm wrapped her shoulders. He wasn’t sure about sleeping in the same bed as her. But she asked him to stay with her, needing someone to hold onto as she faded into sleep. 

It’s the first time she’s been in an actual house as a guest instead of a prisoner in over two years. 

Technically, it’s still their house. It might still be that in emotional sense as well. Miriam didn’t want to go with her family, and her family didn’t seem to protest when Miriam said she wanted to go with Dan. 

“Is he any good?”

“Don’t know.” Miriam curls deep into his side, her eyes finally shutting. She hasn’t slept in the past two days - she likes to keep herself up until she falls into a sleep so deep she can’t get nightmares. Or at least that’s what she hopes. So far, her theory has worked. “Jack nixed the idea right away. And then he and Alana got into some huge fight.” Miriam yawns again, dozing off now. “Hannibal.” Her brow creases. “That was his name.”

Dan wakes up three times in the night from Miriam’s screams. 

The nightmare theory doesn’t work.

*

“I always wanted to do it.” Miriam says, playing with the edge of an FBI brochure. “I just liked the idea of the Secret Service because my parents thought it was best option. And that was back when I was in my 20s and my parents could still guilt trip me about not giving them kids.” 

“It means leaving for Quantico. You’d be gone for months.” Dan says, looking really put out. 

“Yes, but they’ve guaranteed me a job in D.C. If I can get through training.” Miriam says. Apparently all her credentials have given her some leeway. Also, Selina put in a few words for her. Still nothing from Jack Crawford, though. Maybe he never got her letter. 

Dan signs, flopping back on the bed. Miriam lies down next to him, her head on his chest. She wraps her arms around him and inhales his scent, trying to memorize it before she leaves. Eventually she starts planting kisses on his face. Her lips work their way from his face to his neck and to his chest. 

“It’s only for a few months.” She says, her kisses getting wetter. 

She loves the way he tastes on her tongue.


End file.
